[Episcopal News Service] Dancing is mentioned dozens of times in the Bible, often as a means of worship and praising God.
That’s especially the case for the Rev. Julie Hoplamazian, a former ballet instructor who now serves as associate rector of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in New York, New York. Her passion for ballet and serving God inspired her to establish Faith on Pointe, a virtual beginner-friendly class that teaches topics on faith and spirituality using ballet techniques.
“As Christians, our theology really undergirds the importance of our bodies as epistemological instruments, especially knowing that God is a creator, and we are creative beings and creative movement is part of our divine imprint,” Hoplamazian, who began studying ballet when she was 3 years old, told Episcopal News Service. “Unborn babies kick in the womb, and toddlers instinctively jump up and down or wave their arms when they get excited. Basically, we are meant to move. It’s how we were created by God.”
The Rev. Julie Hoplamazian, associate rector of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in New York, New York, leads a Faith on Pointe class. The virtual beginner-friendly class teaches topics on faith and spirituality using ballet techniques. Photo: Faith on Pointe
Before she founded Faith on Pointe in 2020, shortly after COVID-19 lockdowns began, Hoplamazian taught community ballet classes in person at St. Michael’s. She’d also preached a sermon series called “Raising the Barre: Faith Lessons from the Ballet Studio.”
Outside of Faith on Pointe, Hoplamazian runs workshops on faith and ballet, including recently at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in New York.
Drop-in Faith on Pointe classes are held Tuesday evenings and Friday afternoons via Zoom and are open to people of all faith backgrounds. Ballet slippers, leotards, tights and tutus aren’t required. The class is primarily barre work – using a chair or table at home as a stationary handrail for exercises – and some center work with no handrail support. The Zoom opens 10 minutes early for check-in and socializing.
Hoplamazian also occasionally runs a more in-depth six-week, 90-minute course called “The Prayerful Plié: Spiritual Direction through Ballet.”
The program is open to everybody and “every body.” Hoplamazian adapts ballet techniques for anyone who needs physical accommodations.
Today, students drop in once or twice a week from throughout the United States, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Each month focuses on a different theme, such as grace and peace. Hoplamazian offers reflections, reads Scripture and plays music pertaining to the month’s theme.
On days Hoplamazian isn’t able to teach, the Rev. Jocelynn Hughes, a supply Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Northern California, will substitute. Hughes taught classes when she was an apprentice at the Sacramento Ballet, before she went to seminary. When she’s not subbing for Hoplamazian, Hughes joins as a student for both sessions.
“I think one of the upsides to the way we’re doing this class is people can go at their own pace, so everyone has a chance to come at it in a different, spiritual way,” Hughes told ENS. “There’s no judgment or expectation, which is really countercultural in the ballet world because it’s very regimented with lots of expectations for dress and how you comport yourself. Taking that aspect of the ballet world off is, at least for me, really liberating.”
Attending these one-hour lessons gives Sr. Sarah Margaret, an Episcopal nun who serves as director of associates for the Society of St. Margaret in Duxbury, Massachusetts, new perspectives on these topics.
“Every week, Faith on Pointe sends me off with something new to consider – something more to pray about,” Margaret told ENS. “The world’s been dealing with so many unfortunate situations over the last few years. Julie’s helped us focus our praying through some of it by pulling in some music that’s not typically used for ballet, but we can still dance to, and other ways, too.”
Margaret and several other students have been a part of the Tuesday evening group since its inception.
The timing of Faith on Pointe’s establishment was “perfect” for the Rev. Eliza Tweedy, a United Church of Christ pastor who leads the Congregational Church of Laconia in Laconia, New Hampshire, and the virtual Living Mosaic Church for LGBTQ+ and neurodivergent people. Tweedy, who like Hoplamazian, Hughes and Margaret, also took ballet lessons as a child, was looking for a way to stay in shape and be part of faith-based communities while in quarantine.
“Much of modern Western Christianity, especially mainline Protestant Christianity, we aren’t very good at considering faith as an embodied practice,” Tweedy told ENS. “If we call ourselves the body of Christ, then we can’t think that faith is just something we have in our heads. …And that’s what’s great about Faith on Pointe. You don’t need to have the stereotypical ballerina body to benefit from it physically or spiritually.”
The front side of the custom quilt Faith on Pointe students made for their instructor, the Rev. Julie Hoplamazian. Photo: Courtesy of Julie Hoplamazian
Over the last six years, Faith on Pointe has given the students and Hoplamazian an extra benefit: lifelong friendships. Several of them have met in person outside of class, including Margaret and Tweedy, who connected last year outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Hoplamazian and Hughes met for the first time last week in Sacramento.
These friendships are not just rooted in faith and ballet, but a shared love for Hoplamazian. When Hoplamazian was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago, the students secretly collaborated to help make errands easier for her. They collected DoorDash gift cards to pay for meal and grocery deliveries. Students living in Manhattan and St. Michael’s parishioners volunteered to accompany Hoplamazian to her medical appointments. Tweedy handknit Hoplamazian a “knitted knocker,” a soft prosthetic for people who’ve had a mastectomy or lumpectomy.
The biggest surprise for Hoplamazian, though, was a custom handmade quilt depicting her “favorite things,” including The Episcopal Church’s shield, animals, music notes and, of course, ballet and the Faith on Pointe logo. Students mailed fabric squares to Margaret, who sewed and stitched quotes from Scripture into the quilt. Hoplamazian received the quilt after finishing chemotherapy.
Hoplamazian described her gift as “the most thoughtful, beautiful quilt I’ve ever seen.”
“It’s the most incredible gift I’ve ever received in my life. It captures everything about me. I cried when I saw my quilt,” Hoplamazian said. “Everyone in this amazing group comes from all different backgrounds, and we’ve all had our hardships. This is community. This is church. We gather for a purpose that connects us to something beyond ourselves.”
Hoplamazian said she hopes more Episcopalians can hold conversations in church and in seminaries or other spaces about using body movement as a spiritual formation.
“I think the possibilities here are endless in all the ways that dancing really opens us up to God, and how God speaks to us through our dancing bodies,” Hoplamazian said. “Praying through dance is truly a special kind of prayer on its own.”
-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.